Since my wife had to take our daughter back to the Bay Area after her spring break, Journey had a choice to either go with mom or myself. If it was really up to her she would certainly choose mom but she would have a lot more fun with me. The decision is made: hiking with daddy. But there was four feet of new snow in the mountains and I did not feel like that would be a good spot to take Journey this weekend. She would be swimming. Literally. Maybe I should go on a lower elevation hike. I decided to go to Burma Falls in Oroville. I have not been to this one in a long time and there would not be any poison oak or ticks.
I thought the gate opened at sunrise but I was wrong. It did not open until 8AM. I could not wait around until then. It would be too late getting to the waterfall for photos. I thought about just going up to Table Mountain but I did not feel like it so I found a place to park off the road outside the gate and we walked in. It was only an extra 1.5 miles round trip so not a big deal.
It is an easy and flat walk along the road to the waterfall. The last time I was here there were cows right on the road. I was worried about that with Journey along but we saw no cows today. Even if there were the road was wide so we probably could have gotten past them easily. I was also a bit worried about the sun because we had a longer walk and thus were a little bit late so we ran a bit on the downhill sections. This made up time and we arrived at the waterfall on time. The last part involves a bit of scrambling along the creek and hillside. Journey did excellent. She’s getting to be an expert now with the scrambling.
We rested at the waterfall and Journey ate her breakfast while I took photos.
On the way back there was a vulture sitting on a railing by the road. This was so funny: Journey just casually and slowly walked towards it. So nonchalantly. La la la la. Then all of a sudden she bolted towards it. The bird took off just in time. It was so hilarious. And I got it all on video. We also saw a couple squirrels on the hike. Journey loves chasing squirrels also (and she did). It was a very lovely morning in Oroville and we saw no one on the entire hike.
As of Jan. 1 here is the current California winter status. Snow pack is at 161% (north), 94% (central), and 72% (south). Rain is at 134% (north), 71% (central), 70% (south). As you can see the north is doing well so far but not the rest of California, and now we are heading into a 3 week dry period to begin the new year. La Nina is nowhere in sight. Argh.
We were on our way to visit my family in Canada near the end of December. It was a rain day. Streams were flowing out of nowhere down the mountain sides. When we go to Canada I do not usually like stopping too much, especially the first day because it is such a very long day and very long drive. Certainly there is no time for a long hike. However, it seemed like I should stop somewhere. All the waterfalls were going nuts. I made a couple quick stops. The first stop did not work out because there was a big creek to cross which would require getting wet and I was not prepared for that. The second stop was just to little Sweetbriar Falls. I have not been to this one in a long time. The waterfall was flowing crazy. The Sacramento River was flowing crazy. It was pretty cool to stop here. Too bad we are now heading into a stupid dry period. Sigh.
Christmas Day. The family was up at my mother-in-law’s place for the festivities. These days that means everyone sleeps in til noon before opening presents. It is especially hard getting my daughter out of bed. The problem: I wanted to take Journey on a hike in the afternoon. Normally I would go on the 26th or something and take it easy on Christmas Day. That would not work this year, however. A storm was on its way and it was going to rain every day for the rest of the week. The 25th was the only possible day to hike. Somehow I got my daughter out of bed. I bribed her with coffee from Starbucks. (why is Starbucks open on Christmas Day anyway?) We opened all our presents and were finished by 12:30PM. It was a Christmas miracle.
I’m not so sure Journey even wanted to go on a hike. She got a lot of cool presents which she was really happy about and just wanted to play with them all morning. Once we got to the trail though she was excited about the hike. Of course she was.
I have never been to this waterfall in Red Bluff before although I have known about it for some time. It is dry most of the year so the conditions need to be just right but we had quite a bit of rain recently. I was pretty sure it would be flowing and it seemed like a perfect day to try it.
There was water out-flowing from Hog Lake and quite a bit of it. Another Christmas miracle. The Madman was happy. Journey was happy. She got to be off leash for the entire hike. We saw no one else around (except for one other couple). There were bugs on the beginning section near the lake. Why were there bugs? It is winter! I thought it was a bit strange, it must be horrible here in summer.
It is an easy trail down to the waterfall. At the end the trail is a bit rougher and hard to follow but it’s not bad. Journey had no troubles. Once at the waterfall it is a bit dicey. You cannot see the waterfall unless you get right to the edge of the cliff but that is suicide. The cliff seemed very unstable. I did not want to get too close to it and I kept Journey well back from it as well. Fortunately there is a big rock that you can climb up and get a better perspective looking down on the falls. Journey waited patiently as usual while I climbed up to take photos. Turtle Creek Falls is 30 ft. high exactly. It is a pretty little waterfall in a very unlikely location. We had a wonderful Christmas Day hike in Red Bluff.
Journey is not a morning person (dog). Just like her momma, she loves to sleep in. I am a morning person though and if I am hiking I need to get up at the break of dawn (or earlier). That means Journey needs to get up also (if she is coming with me). Once we get to the trailhead she is excited but getting out of bed is the problem. She does not want to get up! This was the situation we found ourselves in on Black Friday.
It probably didn’t help much that it was very cold. About 33 degrees. Brrr… We arrived at the trailhead. Now Journey was excited. Let’s get on that trail and get warmed up.
The plan was to go to Whiskeytown Falls. Journey has never been to it so this is another one I am re-visiting so I can take her to all these beautiful waterfalls. We saw no one at all there and back so she got to be off-leash for the entire hike. A bit surprising but I guess everyone was out shopping or something. Whiskeytown Falls was the hike where my previous dog Kaya almost went over the waterfall. I was not paying attention to her while I was photographing it and she slipped in the stream and almost went over (thankfully she caught herself just in time). I was paying attention to Journey this time as I photographed the waterfall but there is a railing there now so it would have been hard for her to do the same thing. I’m pretty sure there was no railing when I brought Kaya here. Journey just waited very patiently for me. She is such a great dog.
The upper tier of Whiskeytown Falls is now very ugly and un-photogenic. There is a huge awful branch blocking the waterfall and it is not adding any character to it. Someone needs to cut that thing. Perhaps God will take care of it eventually but it could be a few years. The lower tier is a bit better. I let Journey wander around as I photographed it and I was not paying much attention to her but there was no waterfall she could fall down if she slipped in the creek. We finished photographing and hiked back to the car. It was a cold brisk morning at Whiskeytown Falls.
Thanksgiving Day. Just five days after the Bomb Cyclone. I returned to North Table Mountain on my way up north to visit family. Without Journey this time. One, she was with her momma. And two, I had hoped to find a way to the bottom of Flag Falls which I knew would be very difficult (if even possible).
The water was much reduced from five days prior. Much more so than I anticipated. Over ten inches of rain here but flows are already back to below normal and now we are in an extended dry period. I pray it gets much better in the last half of December. I did not have much time but I always find it impossible to bypass Ravine Falls and Phantom Falls without taking photos. I do think I got a different composition of Ravine Falls this time so that makes a quick stop more than worthwhile.
I continued past Phantom Falls. I did not notice the dead cow right at the stream crossing above the waterfall. How could I not notice this!?!? I was clearly not paying attention. I thought it was a log I was walking over, not a leg. I must have come within inches of stepping on it. On the way back I definitely did notice it. Its rib cage had been ripped open by a mountain lion or coyote. There was no smell so it must have died (been killed) very recently. On the far side of Phantom Falls I always see plenty of cow bones and today was no exception (in addition to the dead one along the stream).
I arrived at Flag Falls. I took photos from the viewpoint and thought about my options. I realized that it would take at least an hour to get down to the bottom of it, if it was even possible. I only had about 15 minutes before the sun was on the waterfall. Not worth the effort. I will have to come back another day. I retreated past the dead cow and back to Ravine and Ravine Twin Falls and took more photos there. Then I continued north to see my family for Thanksgiving. So long, Table Mountain, and thanks. Until next time.
